


Standing Shoulder To Shoulder

by Rianne



Series: Kent Parson deserves nice things [5]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-15
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-06-10 20:17:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15299226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rianne/pseuds/Rianne
Summary: No better way to spend a vacation than with Kent.





	Standing Shoulder To Shoulder

**Author's Note:**

> Hello lovelies! For newcomers, you should probably start at the beginning of this series.
> 
> Finally time for the first of the follow-up stories. This is a one-chapter work, then there'll be a three-parter (all short ones though!) as the final installment in the series. Today's is the fluff you've all been waiting for. This story carries no warning except for tooth-rotting sweetness. They love each other, y'all.
> 
> To help with the timeline, a reminder that the last scene of From The Ground Up was on July 4, 2019 ;)

**July 2023**

When Tomas wakes, it’s with sunlight streaming into the room, burning on his eyelids. Jeff and Sanne really need to invest in better blackout curtains in their guest bedroom. It’s warm, despite the air conditioning. He rolls over—plenty of space, Kent must be out on a run—and tries to go back to sleep.

One of the twins is crying downstairs. A moment later it’s quiet again, only for Hailey to burst out into high giggles that echo into the guest bedroom.

“No, nooo! Uncle Kent, stop!” she shrieks. There’s a brief silence, then, “Do it again!”

Tomas smiles into his pillow despite himself. He’s definitely not going to get back to sleep, and if everyone else is clearly up already, maybe he should be too.

He’s showered and dressed a little while later. When he gets downstairs, he finds Sanne at the table between the twins, each in a high chair with breakfast in front of them. Kent is on the couch, Hailey beside him and chattering about a drawing she’s showing him.

“Tomas!” Hailey says, as soon as she’s caught sight of him. When they arrived yesterday, she was pretty shy, but that seems all gone now.

“Hey kid,” he says.

“Do you want to see my drawing?” Hailey asks, already holding it out and sliding off the couch.

Tomas glances longingly at the coffee machine on the kitchen counter, but meets Hailey beside the couch and kneels down to inspect her drawing.

“This is uncle Kent,” Hailey says, gesturing at a stick figure with a wild mop of yellow hair.

“It looks just like him,” Tomas says. Kent narrows his eyes at him over Hailey’s head.

“And this is you.” Hailey points at the figure beside it, a shorter stick figure with a very wide smile.

“Nice. I look very happy.”

“This is mama and daddy and this is David and this is Alex,” she continues, gesturing at each of the stick figures in turn. “I drew Alex crying because mama says he’s grumpy.” Alex has just thrown his plastic breakfast plate onto the floor, so that sounds about right. “Uncle Kent says you’re also grumpy in the morning.”

“Did he now,” Tomas says.

Kent grins at him. “Don’t worry, I told her you’re lovely the rest of the time.”

“Hailey, kom je cornflakes eens opeten,” Sanne says. “Tomas, do you want coffee?”

“Ik wil geen cornflakes,” Hailey says.

“Tomas gaat ook eten,” Sanne says. “Tomas, I’m sure Hailey can show you how big girls eat all of their breakfast so you have a good example.”

“Coffee and breakfast sound great,” Tomas says. Hailey pouts but heads to the table, and Tomas follows her and takes a seat besides David, who immediately tries handing him his no-spill cup.

“Thank you,” Tomas says, putting the cup back in front of David.

“Ank-oo,” David garbles back.

“You wanna go do shitty tourist stuff today?” Kent asks, pulling another chair back.

“You said shitty,” Hailey says gleefully.

“Oops.” Kent looks guiltily at Sanne, who shakes her head but doesn’t seem too pissed.

Tomas chuckles. “Yeah, tourist stuff sounds great. Where’s Jeff off to?” he asks, sipping the mug of coffee Sanne has just handed him.

Kent rescues David’s cup right as Alex pushes it off the table. “Training. He got us some ice time at 11, so I thought we could spend some time at the rink, then go down to the Strip.”

“Perfect,” Tomas says. They don’t spend a lot of time on ice together—there’s usually too many people who know Kent, around any hockey rink. But the Vegas practice rink is quiet in the early summer days; almost all the Aces are out of town, and Jeff picked them a safe time. So clearly it’s time to let Kent skate circles around him and laugh at him as he does it. At least when Tomas is tempted to feel embarrassed, he can think of how Kent led the Schooners to a cup less than a month ago and feel better about himself.

Sanne lifts the twins one-by-one out of their high chairs, and they each toddle off to go play. Hailey chatters at Tomas as he eats breakfast until Sanne dismisses her from the table, and then she drags Kent back to her drawing supplies at the coffee table. Tomas drinks a second mug of coffee as Kent attempts to draw various farm animals on request. It’s a good thing Hailey isn’t very picky about the quality of the drawings, because Tomas highly doubts Kent’s sheep and cows and pigs look very lifelike or even distinctive from each other.

They head to the rink eventually. The ice is crisp and makes a good break from the searing, suffocating heat outside. God, Tomas has _not_ missed this climate. Kent, for all his whining when it’s raining in Seattle, doesn’t seem all that prepared for the wave of heat that smacks them in the face when they make it back out to the parking lot, either.

They wander down the Strip. Kent’s face recognition has gone down a bit, it seems. Either that, or his snapback is offering enough protection for once. The Strip is crowded with tourists. It’s a blessing and a curse—a curse because it’s swelteringly hot, a blessing because in the throng of people they get to hold hands without anybody seeing.

“Hey, let’s go on the Linq,” Kent says, when they’re passing the big Ferris wheel. Tomas was kind of looking forward to reaching some sort of fountain where he could get his shirt wet—or maybe just jump right the fuck in—but he lets Kent pull him along into the line.

It takes forever to reach the front. Kent drops Tomas’ hand and steps up toward the attendant. Tomas watches suspiciously as he talks to her. The next moment, they’re being ushered into an empty pod, and the people behind them grumble as the attendant closes the door as soon as they’re on.

“Real talk, how much did you give her?” Tomas asks, sinking down onto one of the benches. “And what was that for?”

“Just for old time’s sake. Like the first time.” Kent smirks at him, and Tomas knows he’s never going to get him to confess the probably ungodly amount of money he bribed the attendant with.

“Yeah, back to the place of our first hangout,” Tomas says.

“Yup.” Kent grabs his hand and pulls him up from the bench and toward the glass window. The pod is already clear of the buildings immediately surrounding it. “’s where you first told me you were not, in fact, dating your boss.”

Tomas laughs. “Thank god, eh?”

“Eh,” Kent mocks. Before Tomas can retaliate for the chirp, Kent wraps an arm around his waist and kisses him.

Tomas kisses him back. It turns heated pretty fast, and Tomas is a little surprised by Kent’s fervor in this semi-public space. But he’s never going to say no to kissing Kent, and it’s kind of exhilarating to do it surrounded by glass, even though nobody can actually see them.

Kent leans back and strokes his cheek, and Tomas thinks he feels his fingers tremble. “You okay?” he asks.

Kent chuckles. “Yeah, fine.” He turns to the glass in front of them, so Tomas does the same. Kent leans against him as they gaze out over the city.

“Always weird to be back here,” Kent says.

“Shitty memories?”

“Yeah, I mean—mostly. But not all of them, obviously.”

“No?” Tomas says, teasing just a little because he knows what Kent means but he doesn’t mind hearing it.

“No, this is where we met,” Kent says. “Vegas is always going to be where I met you.” There’s something serious in his voice. He turns, suddenly, and grabs Tomas’ hand, tugging so Tomas turns too and faces him. “Meeting you was the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” he says, and okay, Tomas expected him to get a little sappy but not _this_ sappy.

He smiles, though, because Kent looks so earnest and Tomas loves him so much. “You too,” he says.

“When we were here the last time…” Kent hesitates, and Tomas opens his mouth to say something, but a shake of Kent’s head stops him. “When we were here last time, I didn’t really know who I was, and you helped me find out, and you make every single fucking day of my life better—fuck, I wasn’t going to swear,” he says, shakes his head again. Tomas is just staring now, because suddenly it feels like _something is happening_. Kent takes a deep breath. “Uh—The point is, you make me a better person than I could ever be without you, and you make me happy, and I love watching you grow every day into an even more amazing person. And I want to make _you_ happy, and I love you more than anything.” It’s both surprising and not when Kent sinks down onto one knee and he’s holding up a ring box, gold glinting against velvet. “So—Tomas, will you marry me?”

There are tears in Tomas’ eyes. He knows Kent knows his answer—plus it has to be evident by the smile that’s so wide it’s making his cheeks hurt—so he takes his time to pull Kent to his feet. “Yes, of course I’ll marry you,” he says, when he’s got Kent’s shaking hands between his own. “I love you.”

“Love you too,” Kent says, and then they’re just kind of smiling at each other for a little while.

“Do I get to wear that ring?” Tomas asks eventually.

“Oh, yeah,” Kent fumbles with the box for a moment before he slides the ring onto Tomas’ finger. It catches the sunlight, simple and shiny and beautiful. “I have—I got a chain for it, too,” Kent says. “So you can wear it, even when, you know.”

Tomas kisses him. He wants to shout at the entire world that this wonderful, amazing man wants to have him for the rest of their lives. But so long as he can’t do that, even if he might never be able to do that, he’s going to carry the evidence with him—on his finger, on a chain under his shirt, he doesn’t care.

The people who really matter will know.

**Author's Note:**

> Dutch translations:  
> “Hailey, kom je cornflakes eens opeten,” = "Hailey, come eat your cornflakes"  
> “Ik wil geen cornflakes,” = "I don't want cornflakes"  
> “Tomas gaat ook eten,” = "Tomas is going to eat too"
> 
> As always, come find me on my regular tumblr at [whovianravenclaw](http://whovianravenclaw.tumblr.com) or on my hockey tumblr at [eyesonthepuck](http://eyesonthepuck.tumblr.com).
> 
> Comments are much appreciated! I'm in the process of finally responding to all the lovely comments I got on the last chapter of the main fic, so stay tuned :D


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